Henry VIII Ale House

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Not a bad neighbourhood bar, but nothing special, and not really a beer destination unless your marooned in this area of Toronto. Located right on Bloor Street, and nicely laid out indide, with a small seating area flanking either side of the bar. Lots of little British touches, but never really straying too far from the North American model.

The beer list plays it safe, but has a number of the more mainstream British offerings that aren't available on tap elsewhere. A couple house drafts are also contract brewed by someone, I believe Sleeman, but I wouldn't go near them. The Fuller's ESB I ordered was in good shape, and served in some nice glassware. The wine and scotch selection looked good. Service was decent, but the prices were steep.

A small cozy and new place (March of this year) in Etobicoke. Not too far from the Sherway Gardens shopping. A needed English pub with cheap traditional English pub fare. Eight taps plus a cider, two beers created by the macros for them. An attempt to get something special in the lineup, at this time Youngers Tartan Special. Pints more expensive than expected, but food reasonably priced.The owners are right there, a Brit on the beers, an Aussie on the wines, and great service.If you are in this part of town, a place to have a half pint or so, worthwhile if something unusually special- I thought the Younger Tartan.

We happened upon this place while walking around Royal York and Islington looking for a decent pub. We were very pleasantly surprised, although we did end up spending a little more money than we'd planned. What can you do?

The place still has that 'new' feel to it, so the British pub atmosphere hasn't quite settled in yet, but it's still quite nice. Bartender and wait staff were very pleasant, and seemed to know their beers.

Selection was much better than any other pub in the area, and had few (if any) macros -- no BMC products, no lousy imports (Heineken, Corona), although they did have Stella.

About 10 taps carried fairly common UK beers (Guinness, Smithwicks, Harp, etc.)... however, one stand-out was the Tartan Special on tap, which I'd never seen before but was quite good.

Bottled selection is much better than your average pub, especially the British stuff - Hobgoblin, Black Wych, Bombardier, Fuller's (Porter & Pride), and quite a few others. Decent selection of foreign lagers as well, if you're into that kind of thing.

Food was upscale pub, and very, very good. We had the chips with curry sauce (pretty sure they're fresh cut), chicken wings (a step up from your average pub wings, uniquely spiced), and I had their absolutely fantastic house-made English bangers and fingerling potatoes. Some nice desserts too -- I tried a bite of the fried banana dessert and it was good, if unhealthy.

Dinner for 2, including shared app, 2 mains, 1 dessert, 3 beers (Tartan Special on tap, plus a 500ml Bombardier and Fuller's Porter) was about $80 including tax and good tip. Beers on tap are about $5.50, bottles range from $5-8 depending on brand and size.

Highly recommend a visit if you live in the area, or are visiting Toronto and have already done the Smokeless/Volo/Beerbistro/Rhino/etc. downtown beer scene.